1 John 4

V1. In the last verse of the previous chapter John has already highlighted the fact that you have the Holy Spirit (1Jn 3:24). There he mentions Him as an emphasis of the assurance that God abides in you. In the section you now have before you he will contrast the work of God’s Spirit with the work of the spirit of the antichrist.

You can discern what comes from God’s Spirit and what comes from the spirit of the antichrist by asking for the confession of Jesus Christ. That is the first touchstone. There is another touchstone in this section. That is the question about whom the audience is for the message of a person who presents himself as a teacher (verse 6). There is mention of a company of listeners that consists of those who are from God and a company of those who are from the world. Those who are from God, listen to the apostles; those who are from the world, listen to the spirit of the antichrist.

John starts with addressing you as ‘beloved’. That is a wonderful starting point for the old apostle. It expresses his care for you. Out of that care he wants to warn you not to accept all kinds of nice talks about God and His Son as if those words automatically come from God. You may think that it is alright as soon as you hear someone talk about God and Jesus. That is certainly not alright. You ought to test the spirits and you ought to know from which source they speak.

There are examples in the Bible which show that sometimes unbelievers have prophesied through the Spirit of God, such as Balaam (Num 24:2). What he then said (Numbers 23-24) came from the good source. When he counseled the people against the Word of God to commit harlotry, he spoke from an evil source (Num 25:1; 31:16).

It is not said that you should test people to know whether they are believers or if they hold the right doctrine, but it is about testing spirits. It is not about an orthodox confession, but about the question from which source people speak. Is the source the Holy Spirit or is it a demonic spirit? That is the question here. It is about unmasking people who present themselves as prophets and claim to come up with a message from God, while in reality they bring lie and therefore speak through a demonic spirit.

It is about spirits that imitate the work of the Holy Spirit. The spirit of islam, for example, is clearly a demonic spirit and not an imitation spirit. The case with the false prophets who went out, is different. They imitate the Spirit of God, behind which of course a demonic spirit is hidden. That they “have gone out”, indicates an activity. Activity always impress people. What also is impressive, is that they are with many. You may have an idea about that kind of influence. If many people claim something, it impresses more than if an individual says it.

V2. The touchstone is the way people think about the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit only reveals what serves to the glorification of the Lord Jesus and He does that with joy. Satan and his angels are doing the reverse. They talk nicely, but there is nothing that glorifies Him. On the contrary, they seek to dishonor Him. It is not only about historical salvation facts, but also about facts related with the Person of Christ. He is to be confessed as the Word that truly became flesh (Jn 1:14).

He has not put on the form of blood and flesh temporarily. That He “has come in the flesh” means that He became Man. The fact that He is Man means that from the moment He became that it was indissolubly connected to His Person. He truly became Man and He will be that forever. If He would not be Man anymore now, then that means that He had never been truly Man.

That He “has come in the flesh”, implies by definition that He has always existed as God. A person can only come in the flesh when He has a preexistence as God. He has eternally existed as the eternal Son. The confession that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is therefore also a confession of the eternal Godhead of the Lord Jesus.

V3. When you talk about the Lord Jesus with someone and no clear confession about Him comes out of his mouth, then it is not right. Such a person is not from God, that is, he is not born of God (1Jn 3:9-10). Not being able to make this confession means that such a person has not been born again.

Someone who is born of God and therefore has new life, loves the Lord Jesus. That will also be noticeable. Saying that you love Him without showing anything of it, is telling a lie. It is about the confession of ‘Jesus’. Where you meet new life, there will be no need for an extensive explanation of Him. Family members immediately recognize one another.

The spirit of the antichrist does not confess Jesus as having come in the flesh. It is not only about what this spirit says, but also about the coming and performing of this spirit (2Thes 2:3). It is someone who does not confess Jesus and also does not consider God in any other way. The antichrist is the man in whom sin is present in its fullness. The antichrist as a person is still to come, but his spirit is now already in the world. That spirit is not from God, but comes from satan.

V4. What should you do if you notice that you are dealing with such a spirit? You do not have to do anything. You may know something and that is that you have overcome that spirit. You have not overcome him by winning a discussion. You should not even start a discussion, for then you will be defeated. Eve went into a conversation with the devil and she was the loser. You do not need to know and rebuke all arguments of the adversaries. You should simply stick to what you have been taught from the beginning, which is to the truth that was announced to you by the apostles.

You are born of God and you may see yourself in the position of overcomer because you have the Holy Spirit in you through faith in the Name of the Son of God. So you don’t need to ask who is greater, the Spirit Who is in you or the spirit who is in the world. Therefore you should not let yourself be impressed by the parade of spirits who try to fool you by saying that you are a follower of a pitiable faith and that they can tell you about higher forms of truth. Hold on to the faith that you have heard from the beginning. Then you behave as an overcomer and the enemy gives way (1Jn 5:4).

V5. The followers and proclaimers of the false doctrine “are from the world”. That’s their origin and there they are at home. Everything that comes from them is what they are and where they belong. That finds connection with all who belong to the world and not with believers. The world is under the power of satan and he rules it. From that evil system, he sends his demons to spread their pernicious teachings. What they bring perfectly connects with the people who belong to the world. These people listen to them because they speak the same language as the people of the world.

V6. You do not belong to the world anymore. That’s why you do not listen to them. Because you know God you listen to the apostles, for they “are from God”. It is about a radical contrast, the contrast between truth and error. There is no connection between those two. Therefore there is also no connection between those who are of God and those who are not of God. The unbeliever doesn’t understand anything from what you as a child of God receive with love. He doesn’t listen to it.

You can also apply the words “listens to us” in a broader sense than to the apostles alone. You may apply them to all who proclaim the Word of God. Then it is about the word of the apostles, in other words the inspired Word of God. Then you’ll love to listen to teachers who explain God’s Word to you and edify you in your faith. They do not point to themselves and they also do not try to win you for their ideas, but they point to Christ. If you hear them, it will find connection in your heart, because the Spirit dwells in there.

That will only happen if the words that you hear are in accordance with the Scripture. Thereby it doesn’t matter by whom they are spoken, whether it is a well-known preacher or a totally unknown believer. The touch stone is God’s Word, the written Word. If that is spoken under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, you listen to it.

Now read 1 John 4:1-6 again.

Reflection: How do you know from what spirit something comes?

V7. After the warning teaching with regard to evil spirits in the previous verses, John again focuses on the nature of God, which you have received as a child of God. He again starts with addressing you with ‘beloved’. In that way John wants to make you feel that he loves you, for you also have, like he does, the Lord Jesus as your life. By that he also means to say that you are a ‘beloved’ of God. God Himself loves you.

The fact that you have the nature of God has to become visible, for love in itself cannot be seen. The love you have for the other “is from God”. That love is from God does not mean that each form of love comes from God. From the context it appears that it is about Divine love. In God’s Word you also read about the love of man, which he received from his Creator. That’s called ‘natural love’. By this is meant, for example, the love of parents for their children and vice versa. That love is also given by God, but that love can cool down. It goes without saying that by natural love God has never meant a wrong love, such as homosexual love. That is unnatural love (Rom 1:26-27).

Divine love can never cool down. That love is not dependent on the response of the person to whom it is expressed. That love is in you and is proof that you are born of God and that you know God. You see how love is connected to its origin and the knowledge of it. To live, by being born of God, and to know the One Whom you are born of, belong together. Through the new birth you have a relationship with Him. You know to Whom you belong, you know Him.

V8. A person with whom the Divine love is missing, has no relationship with God. Such a person has never even known God; there has never been a relationship with Him ever. However wonderfully a person might speak about Him, he is a fraud and a deceiver. Not knowing God means that there is no fellowship with God. The verb ‘to know’ in the Bible has the meaning of ‘having fellowship with’. The meaning of ‘knowing’ is beautifully expressed in Genesis 4:1 where you read: “And Adam knew Eve his wife” (NKJV). Fellowship is a matter of the deepest intimacy. Therefore it speaks volumes when John relates ‘love’ with ‘knowing’ God, because God is love.

True love comes from God “for God is love”. Only when there is Divine love there will be love for one another, a love that comes from the fellowship with God. When we speak about God as love and that His love is in us and through that love we therefore are able to love, you can compare it with a sea. When it says here: ‘God is love’, then you, as it were, stand at the seashore. That He lives in you as love, you can compare with a bucket that is filled with water from the sea. When you let a bucket sink in the sea you can say that the sea is in the bucket. That’s how it is with your heart which is sunk in the love of God. You should ponder on it for a moment and you will be overwhelmed.

V9. God has given a great proof of the fact that He is love. Love is invisible and must be revealed. God dwells in unapproachable light (1Tim 6:16). We would have never known anything of Him had He not revealed Himself. But He made His love visible by giving “His only begotten Son”, or better said, as it is written, by sending “His only begotten Son into the world”.

We would have never known God if He had not done this. We would have never known anything of the mystery in God regarding the mutual love between the Father and the Son. John speaks about the ‘only begotten Son’. That does not mean that He only became Son by His birth. He has always been the only begotten Son. ‘Only begotten’ means unique, the only one of His kind. As such the Father has sent Him and as such He came.

You read that that love “was manifested toward us” (NKJV). That implies that the proof of God’s love is completely outside you. False teachers also speak about love, but then as a mystical experience to learn to know God in that way. To succeed you must turn into yourself and follow your own feelings. That’s of course not the way. ‘Toward’ you means that it indeed is outside you, but it also means that you were allowed to perceive, acknowledge and accept that manifestation. That’s how you received life.

V10. You had no life, for you were dead in your trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1). Because you were dead it was impossible to love God. Besides that you were dead you were also guilty because you did not love God. That’s why you needed reconciliation. God also provided with that. A propitiation was needed to meet the holiness and righteousness of God.

There was no love for God with you and me. Everything in God’s love came from Him. His heart went out to you because He also wanted you to partake of a company of people whom He loves to bring into His presence, to His heart. He removed everything that stood in the way by sending His Son as “a propitiation for our sins”, which also includes your sins. Herein you see the great price He was willing to pay.

That God is love ought not to be lowered to the level of ‘God can love’, as if there are moments that He does not love. God’s love became evident on the cross of Calvary. That’s the way for you to know what love is. The measure is that love has given Himself for sins He Himself did not commit.

V11. John concludes now that if God has loved us in such an exalted and impressive way, it cannot be otherwise than that we love one another too. In that way we make visible that God is love.

V12. Nobody has ever seen God, but God’s love has become visible by His Son Whom He sent into the world (Jn 1:18). However, His Son is not on earth anymore, but the family of God is. This family has the Son as their life. What the Son first did when He was on earth, ought to be done now by the family of God. And how can the family of God make possible that God is seen? By loving one another!

The public testimony of Whom God is, is given when there is love among the believers, among those who have the nature of God. From your love toward your brother and sister it becomes apparent that God abides in you and that His love in you is perfect. That means that His love in you is fully expressed if you love your brother and sister. All your actions toward your brother and sister are then in fact God’s actions. The love for the other comes to its full right and purpose in you.

If God, Who is the source of love, abides in you – and He does! –, then love doesn’t work differently in you than it does in Him, Who is the source of it. Wherever the love of God is being expressed from that source, it can only happen in the perfection which is typical to that source.

You may know it in the meantime, but I still want to remind you of the fact that John presents things in their essence and not after to the poor practice we sometimes show. That must not cause you to become blind to the wrong things, but that is not the point here. You are seen here in connection with the propitiation through which your sins have been taken away. God sees you without sins and that’s the way you should look at yourself and others too.

V13. In case you may wonder how you could know that God abides in you and that you abide in Him, John gives another assurance. Indeed, you may know this by the fact that God “has given” you “of His Spirit”. As a result, you already participate now in the same atmosphere of fellowship that you will soon enjoy in the Father's house. ”Of His Spirit” implies that the fullness of the enjoyment is still to come in the house of the Father. The Spirit has been given to you because only the Spirit knows what is in God (1Cor 2:11). You have the knowledge of the truth – that you abide in God and He in you – not from yourself or someone else, but from God’s Spirit. Through the Spirit you share with God what is His.

V14. The Spirit gives you the inner assurance that you abide in God and that God abides in you. But something more is added that is external, that is, that which is outside of you, but which you see and testify to. You have not seen the Spirit nor do you testify to all kinds of spiritual gifts that you yourself or others would have. What the Spirit has shown you and the power He has given you to testify to, refers to the Son, Who was sent by the Father “[to be] the Savior of the world”.

‘Seeing’ these things and ‘testifying’ to these things are also wonderful expressions of the new life that you have received. In that way those who are not yet partakers of it, are able to hear about it and if they convert they will also partake of it.

Now read 1 John 4:7-14 again.

Reflection: How did you get to know the love of God and how does that love work in you?

V15. There is another assurance to recognize whether a person abides in God and whether God abides in such a person. That assurance is the confession “that Jesus is the Son of God”. This confession is not a profound or inconceivable truth, but it is the confession of each true believer. There is no believer without this confession, regardless of his age. It is a great truth. The humiliated Man Jesus is the Son of God. He was that not only when He was on earth; He still is. He who does not believe that is not a child of God.

God has fellowship with those, who have exactly the same thought about Jesus as He does. Such people feel fully at home with God. That is what God desires. The word ‘confess’ also indicates that wonderfully. Confessing means ‘saying the same’ and in this case it implies: saying the same thing as God. You also find that thought in “if we confess our sins” (1Jn 1:9). In that way we declare that God is right about everything He has always said about our sins. You have acknowledged and accepted His thoughts about His Son and about yourself and about the world. If you are aware that you have been far away from God and now have been brought in such a circle of glory, then you will surely ascribe all honor to God.

V16. John speaks with certainty about what he and all believers – “we”, this word is put in front and therefore has emphasis – “have come to know and have believed”. It is beyond all doubts that false teachers want to cause about it. You can make this statement your own too. You have known and believed “the love which God has for” you. “Come to know” means that you have realized, and “have believed” means that you have accepted.

Once again that wonderful expression sounds “God is love”. It makes you want to shout it out loud: God is love! You have experienced it, you have been saved by His love. You have seen the manifestation of His love by sending His Son and in the propitiation the Son has become for your sins. Because of that, you have life from God. The Son is your life. That implies that you abide in love and therefore you abide in God and that God abides in you.

V17. That love can be with you, as well as it is with each other believer, not otherwise than “perfected”. If God is love and He abides in you and you in Him, there is no lack in that love. You can note that if you think of “the day of judgment”. Do you think that when that day comes the judgment of God will be different than it is now? Of course not. Therefore you are looking forward to that day with confidence. You do not need to have any fear for the Judge, because you are in the world “as He is”. And how is He? He is in the glory, surrounded by glory, without having anything to do with sin. You know that He has finished the work and that you have Him as your life. As a result, you are as He is, although you are not there yet where He is.

Here it is not about your position in Christ before God. Your position in Christ before God is addressed by Paul in the letters he has written. John shows that the Lord Jesus is with God and in full fellowship with God in a realm and place that harmonize with the love of God. In that place there is no thought that’s related with sin, for it has been completely propitiated. And what He is you are in the world. You are living in a realm where everything is against God, but as far as you are personally concerned you are as He is. There is full fellowship with God, harmony and rest and peace. You have been brought into fellowship with Divine Persons. There is no need for you to fear judgment.

John already spoke twice about confidence. In chapter 2 it is about the confidence at the coming of the Son: how you can then face Him without any hindrance (1Jn 2:28). In chapter 3 it is said that you now already have confidence in respect to your relation toward God to ask Him in confidence for what you need (1Jn 3:21).

When John for the third time speaks about confidence (boldness), then it is indeed in relation to chapter 2:28, but he now uses the expression “the day of judgment”. In that way he draws your attention to the moment that all things will be exposed in the true light. At this moment, many things may still be unclear or in confusion to you, but on the day of judgment it will become apparent how things are in reality. Then the perfection of the love of God will only become even clearer. The day of judgment has not come yet, but the confidence definitely is here already.

V18. The thought of fear does not belong to confidence, for fear does not go together with love. Love is the full expression of Who God is, and God has no fear at all. Now you know the perfect love and that perfect love is in you, the fear has been cast out. You see that God in His love has removed everything that hindered you to live in fellowship with Him. That life in fellowship with Him is just as perfect on earth as it is in heaven where we will be soon with Him. The circumstances will then be different, but not the new life that you now already have.

It is not imaginable that someone, after everything what John has explained in this letter, would still fear God concerning the eternal punishment. You will without a doubt agree that fear for a judging God has been completely removed because of what you have seen of His love. John uses a powerful word when he says that love ‘casts out’ fear. There is a power in love working that causes fear to lose the fight. He who fears, “is not perfected in love”. He who fears has not comprehended the love of God because he doesn’t partake of it (cf. Mt 25:25,30). Such painful fear for punishment doesn’t fit in the sphere of confidence of love in which God’s children may be.

You may wonder how this is consistent with Peter's call to fear God (1Pet 1:17). But Peter does not refer to the fear for the eternal judgment, but he refers to the appropriate reverence for Him Who is full of majesty. You will agree with me that this is an aspect that you also must take into consideration. John does not mean to say that you should not have respect for God now. Confidence and respect go together very well.

V19. In this verse John concludes the section about love with a summary: “We love, because He first loved us.” Thereby he doesn’t say whether it is about our love toward God or our love toward the brothers and sisters. Both aspects should not and cannot be separated. That you are able to love is because He first loved you. He is the source. John does not go into details Who “He” is. It can be the Father and it can be the Son. It doesn’t matter. Both the Father and the Son are God and therefore both the Father and the Son are love. The Father has proven that by giving His Son for you and the Son has proven that by giving Himself for you. Therefore it cannot be otherwise than that he who knows this love also love.

V20. Now you have seen what love is up to verse 19, from verse 20 you read about the test of love. Someone may claim to love God, but how can you know whether this is really true? Well, you have discovered again and again in this letter that God’s nature is reflected in your brother and sister and that they are in the same relation toward God as you are. He who says that he loves God will love all who have the Son of God as their life. Life expresses itself. What is claimed must be visible in the brotherly love. You cannot see God, but you can see your brother.

The word ‘seen’ means that you have seen something very well, that you have given full attention to it. This is how the disciples have seen the Lord Jesus (1Jn 1:1), which caused them to learn to know Who the Father is. This is how you also should look at your brother for whom Christ has died.

Someone with whom is hatred instead of love for his brother, while he says to love God, is a liar. As it has been noted more often, such a person is in the Christian company. In that company he calls the others ‘brother’, but that is a lie. He says of himself that he is a brother, but he is not. Life and love are missing, they are not present in him.

V21. Such a person also does not care about the commandment that the Lord Jesus has given that we should love one another. He does not have love in him nor does he see anything in the other that he finds worth loving. The commandment to love the brother is only possibly to be followed by those who love God because they have known and believed God’s love.

Remember that it is a commandment and not a kind request that you can deal with at random. If you love God, you must love each brother and sister without exception.

Now read 1 John 4:15-21 again.

Reflection: Why is it that there is no fear in perfect love?